


Tame the World

by cavalcadeCrumbling



Category: Don't Starve (Video Game)
Genre: Additional Tags to Be Added, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Gen, Hopefully will end up being quite long, LOTS probably, Role Reversal, This is gonna be really different from the typical triumphant/role swap AU, but not really, triumphant!wilson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-28 00:34:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21127865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cavalcadeCrumbling/pseuds/cavalcadeCrumbling
Summary: In THIS VERY HOUSE, eccentric scientist WILSON P. HIGGSBURY and his son PATRICK W. HIGGSBURY once VANISHED, leaving mother and wife to remove HERSELF from thus world as well. NOW OPEN to the BRAVE and the RECKLESS who wish to find themselves in a HAUNTED HOUSE!Abigail presses the paper closer to her uncle's face, her other hand holding onto her crying sister. "Father won't let us go. Won't you, Uncle William? Wendy is so upset."





	Tame the World

"You're the best, Uncle William," Abigail says, holding onto her sister's hand with a smile as their uncle presents a set of tickets to the people in front of the house. They accept them with a nod, unchaining the gate to allow them in.

"Your father is just paranoid," William says, leading their little group forward. "It was the least I could do, to provide you two with some excitement."

"Uncle, do you think ghosts are real?" Wendy asks, swinging her arm linked with Abigail's forward and back as they walk up to the house.

"As real as magic is!" He says with a smile.

The girls giggle. "So no?" Abigail asks.

William gasps offendedly, turning to look back at them with his hands on his hips. "How dare you? Speak like that while we're in there and the ghosts of the Higgsburys may very well just steal you away."

Wendy gasps, and Abigail pulls her closer. "They can take me all they want, but they can't have Wendy! I won't let them!"

"Don't give them any reason to, then," William says, pushing open the door of the house. The girls quickly scramble up the stairs to be beside him, looking in with a mix of cautiousness and excitement.

"Let's go, shall we?" He gestures into the house, and Wendy pulls Abigail in.

"Come, sister! I want to see a ghost!"

Abigail giggles, and William chuckles, pushing the door to behind them. Wendy keeps her grip on Abigail, heading off quickly in the direction of one of the rooms. She's excited, and very thankful Uncle William had allowed them to come after all. After their father had refused, she'd been so upset. Abigail was smarter than she was, though, and had pulled her over to their uncle to ask him instead.

And here they were! In the kitchen of a haunted house! In a way, it was very much like their own, Wendy noticed, though she and her sister walked through it anyway, turning over this and that. William stands in the doorway, smiling at them.

As Wendy picks up a pot, she gasps, pulling on Abigail's hand to grab her attention. "There's a number!" Abigail yells excitedly. On the bottom, written in chalk, the number 4.

"Should we hold onto it?" Wendy asks, looking back at William.

"I don't see why not. You can always put it back when we leave, but perhaps the owners had unfinished business? We could help lay them to rest."

"Oh, yes!" Wendy exclaims, tucking the pot under her free arm.

"Like a puzzle?" Abigail asks.

"I suppose," William says, sounding a bit miffed. "Shall we continue? There's more to see than the kitchen."

"I could stay here forever," Wendy says, but she does move onto the next room, which was, unsurprisingly, a dining room. It was just as amazing. Wendy blows dust off a half-melted candle, smiling to herself. Abigail has let go of her hand to look at the paintings hung up on the walls, and William joins her. After a moment, Wendy does too, not wanting to be left out.

"Wendy, look at his hair," Abigail whispers. "It looks like a W..."

"That would make a funny-looking ghost," Wendy adds, giggling. "Everything looks normal, and then, you look up. W!"

"At least they styled their daughter's hair sensibly," William says, pointing at the child in the painting.

"Wasn't it a man and his son who disappeared?" Wendy asks, redirecting her attention to the child and thinking back at the advertisement that had brought them here.

"Perhaps they were wrong? Look at her shirt, no boy would wear that."

"But he's wearing pants," Abigail points out, pointing to the edge of the painting. "It looks all wrong for that to be a skirt."

William frowns, looking closer at the painting. Wendy finds it a bit odd too, it almost seemed as if they'd wanted the question of whether the child was a boy or a girl to come up. The shirt was so frilly, but Abigail was right that they were wearing pants too. The short hair didn't help in distinguishing it.

After a moment, William shrugs. "It said the Higgsburys were known for being eccentric, so I would not be surprised if the confusion was intentional."

"Eccentric is a way to put it," Wendy says, then gestures upward again. "W."

"Yes, the W hair does make that quite clear."

Abigail wanders back to the table, and Wendy quickly moves to follow her, leaving William to stare at the picture on his own. The two of them start turning over plates and table decor, looking for another number. Abigail holds up a bundle of silverware excitedly. "Three!" The number is sewn into the bag they're in.

"Aww," Wendy says, and Abigail sticks her tongue out at her. Wendy crosses her arms the best she can while still holding onto the pot. "I'll get the next one, just you wait."

"No way!" Abigail yells back, then bolts off to the next room. Wendy chases after her, and they begin a competition of who can find the next numbered thing. William follows after them at a much slower pace, sighing to himself.

It's a while before they find anything else interesting, though the twins seem to be enjoying themselves just as well. If anything the lack of anything is just ramping up their competitive spirit. Thus, it's a bit of a surprise when both Wendy and Abigail lift something above their heads in excitement and achievement while in a place that looks like a study.

"Two!" "A lever!"

Wendy glares at Abigail as she holds a pot lid over her head. Abigail grins, but runs over to her all the same. "What do you think the lever's for?" she asks, pointing at it with the lid. "It's a lot more interesting than a pot lid."

"I don't know..." Wendy says. "It seems important, though? You don't just leave levers around."

"Makes sense to me, maybe uh..." Abigail turns around and stares at a weird contraption in the corner of the room. "That will tell us."

The contraption looks like it's made of wood and stone, with a strange pulley system at the side that doesn't appear to actually do anything. As Wendy stares at it, though, she feels almost drawn to it, suddenly very sure that it has knowledge to share and the means to manipulate their resources.

She walks up to it, and her sister follows. They both stare at it for a long moment, and though it says nothing about the lever, it does tell them they should put together the pot and the lid, and that if they do they'll only be missing a few gold rings to make something interesting.

The twins look to one another, and then the pieces of a complete pot in their hands. They put the pot and lid together by the machine, and it makes a poof sound as the lid comes on.

"Did you see that, Uncle William?" Wendy asks excitedly, looking back to the doorway. William looks a little confused, an even smaller portion scared.

"I certainly did. Would you like me to carry the pot and the lever so that you have free hands?"

"Yes please!" Wendy shoves both of the large objects into her uncle's arms, then looks back at Abigail. "Abby, let's find those rings!"

"Rings? What--" William is interrupted by the girls running past him off to a bedroom, though he doesn't follow this time.

Wendy descends upon the jewelry box in the room with enthusiasm, watching out of the corner of her eye as the craftier Abigail slides open the closet door instead. No, she would find the rings. Who keeps rings in a closet, anyhow?

After scrounging though, she comes with two of the rings she needs. She frowns, nudging necklaces to the side to see if she'd missed any.

"I found one," Abigail says, suddenly next to her. She drops another gold ring onto the table, startling Wendy.

"How?"

"It was on a glove," she says simply, grinning.

Wendy sticks her tongue out slightly, frustrated, but does scoop the three rings up and makes her way back to the study room. Excitement returns to her as she gets closer, eager to see what they're going to create.

When the twins make it to the room, they beeline to William, who's messing with the dials on a radio in the room. Seeing he wasn't holding what they needed anymore, they ignore him for the moment, grabbing the pot off the table next to him. Then, to the odd contraption.

They set down the needed materials, for a moment unsure what to do, and then the information simply slides into their head as if they'd known all along. They find themselves suddenly able to bend metal, to break through the rings and have them reform as if they were Uncle William's trick rings, and by the end, they've put together...

Something. The rings spin on rods made from the silverware, all held in place by the pot and the lid. The impressive part had really passed, though. It was far more fun to put together than to see in the end.

There's a surge of static, and the girls turn to look back at William and the radio. William's jumped back from it, apparently startled.

"LOOK AT THESE WONDERFUL LITTLE TINKERERS! I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR FINALLY GETTING THAT PUT TOGETHER."

Wendy watches William step further back, before her uncle mutters something she can't hear and seems to calm himself down.

"It was fun!" Abigail says, bounding over to the radio.

"YOU THINK SO? THEN WOULD YOU BE UP TO DOING ANOTHER FAVOUR FOR ME?"

"Are you a ghost?" Wendy asks, following her sister over to the radio.

"YOU COULD SAY THAT!"

"I'll definitely help, then!" she says with a smile. "You too, right Abigail?"

"Yes!"

"Let's see what he wants first," William says, stepping back over to them.

"YOU ALREADY HAVE WHAT YOU NEED. SMART OF YOU TO PICK UP THAT LEVER. THERE'S A TRAPDOOR--"

"In the closet!" Abigail interrupts, looking proud of herself.

"WHY, YES, THERE IS! UNDERNEATH IS MY SECRET LAB, AND I HAVE SOMETHING IN THERE WHICH IS ALMOST COMPLETE. ALL IT NEEDS IS THAT LEVER."

"What does it do?" William asks.

"IT'S A MARVEL OF SCIENCE. TO TELL YOU NOW WOULD MAKE IT LESS IMPRESSIVE WHEN YOU DO SEE IT."

"That doesn't sound--"

"Wendy, last one to the lab has to help mother make breakfast tomorrow!" Abigail's off.

Wendy gasps, then grabs the lever off the table. "Come on, Uncle William! Or you'll have to make breakfast!"

"Anything but that," William says, and starts to leave with her.

"BRING THE RADIO TOO, WILL YOU?"

Wendy watches William stop and turn back for it, but she runs on after her sister. When she gets back into the closet, the trapdoor is already propped open, and she quickly scrambles down, trying not to drop the lever on the way down.

"Ha! You get to help with breakfast!"

"Not true," she says, hopping the rest of the way down. "Uncle William isn't here yet."

Abigail gasps. "You're right! Haha, he hates cooking."

Wendy walks over to the huge contraption in the middle of the room, tilting her head at it. "Where do you think the lever goes?"

"At the side, maybe? Is there a spot for it over there?" Abigail's already waking to the other side, and frowns as she finds nothing.

"There is!" Wendy says, and she puts the lever in the rectangular hole. It clicks into place easily, and Wendy smiles, satisfied.

William drops down a second later, holding the radio under his armpit. A garble of static comes from it in something like a gasp.

"WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! YOU'VE ALREADY GOT IT IN PLACE."

William places the radio down on a nearby table, muttering to himself some more.

"What now, Mister Radio?" Abigail asks.

"ONE OF YOU NEEDS TO STAND IN FRONT OF IT, AND THEN JUST THROW THE LEVER!"

"I will," William says immediately. "You two want to see what happens, right?" He steps in front of the contraption, holding his breath.

"THAT WORKS OUT JUST PERFECTLY. NOW! THE LEVER!"

Abigail joins Wendy beside the lever, and together they pull it downward. Abigail throws her hands in excitement, and Wendy giggles along with her.

What appears to be shadows rise from the floor, and Wendy watches as William's face turns from simple fear to genuine distress as they grab him and drag him down into the floor.

"_Uncle_!!" Abigail shouts, throwing herself to the floor where he'd been. "What'd you do to him!?" she shrieks at the radio, but the only response is a pop and the static suddenly stopping.

Wendy rushes to Abigail's side, lifting her up by the arm. "Come on, Abby. We'll look for him."

"Is he even still here? What if here's gone forever?"

"He can't be gone. He's probably somewhere else in the house. Let's look."

Wendy smiles as Abigail allows her to slide their hands together.

"Okay. Okay, you're right, you're right, it doesn't make sense for him to be completely gone."

"Right! Let's climb back up and look for him."

**Author's Note:**

> I've been sitting on this idea longer than I have Flowers Worth Thousands, but I've only gained the confidence to start writing it now. This is gonna be a long one, folks.


End file.
